1. Field of the invention
The present invention relates to a process for manufacturing a vehicle body with a roof unit containing an outer skin and an inward facing ceiling, or an outer skin and an inward facing ceiling with a ceiling frame, whereby the roof unit is in the form of a unit ready for installation and, a basic structure, and the ceiling and the outer skin along with the basic structure feature configurations for joining that mate with each other at their mutual places for joining, this for a body of a road-bound vehicle fitted together horizontally, and particular roof units.
2. Discussion of the Prior Art
It is known that manufacturing concepts for powered vehicles make use of individual modules that can be assembled separately. This concerns in particular the whole of the dashboard including the cockpit. Further, described in the book Horst Pippert, Karosserietechnik, Vogel-Fachbuch, Vogel Publishers, Wurzburg, 1989, pp 242 and 244, is that horizontal separation of the roof and base units can be useful. Before final assembly, individual fittings may be readily added to the base unit. A process for manufacturing a horizontally separated vehicle body is described in EP-B 0 250 678.
Known from DE 79 29 367 U is a roof structure for powered vehicles having an outer skin and a roof frame that form a unit which can be attached to the columns of the vehicle body.
The outer skin of the roof is joined along its edges to a profiled section frame, which is attached to the columns of the vehicle body.
Separate manufacture of roof and floor units or basic structure was hardly adopted for series production purposes as the fitting together and joining of the roof to the base unit is difficult, or at least complicated, and the overall stability of a vehicle body—and with that its structural strength—is made worse compared with a body with side walls reaching up to the roof.
Methods of manufacturing the rough bodywork from floor units and outer sheets suffer the disadvantage that the subsequent fitting out of the vehicle, e.g. installing all components in the region of the roof and the window posts, involves mounting or fitting these from the inside of the body frame. The freedom of movement for a person or a machine in a finished vehicle body is very limited. Consequently, manual work is tiresome, and in some cases it is not possible to make use of robots.